The Comforts of Catastrophe

“One day I read somewhere that we sleep away half our lives,” writes Günter Kunert, “and I have to say it really doesn’t bother me that much.” Perhaps that’s because the world as we know it today hasn’t that much to offer in the way of positives. For many decades, Kunert has been keeping what he refers to as his “Big Book”, a work in progress consisting of an epic assembly of thoughts and ideas, notes and observations, considerations an reflections in the form of snippets, aphorisms, articles and essays which corroborate his standing as one of the most astute, perspicacious and pragmatic observers of the modern political and literary scene. “Anyone impervious to the voice in these essays must be stone deaf”, Walter Hinck wrote in FAZ.